Your LondonTop 5s
 

Just had a last minute business trip scheduled to London, heading out this Saturday night and returning to NY on Wednesday afternoon. We'll have a lot of free time for sightseeing. What are your top 5 places in London to see? Top 5 pubs? Top 5 restaurants? Top 5 walks? Any and all information about how to make this trip some fun would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Thanks All!

Hi kate - lucky you! I leave for London tomorrow - it's my favourite city!
You don't have all that much time, IMO, but you will be able to get a taste of London most certainly.

I am too rushed to give you things in "top 5" form, but some things I would recommend for a first time visitor:
A Big Bus hop on/hop off tour to get oriented
Westminster Abbey
The Tower of London
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The National Gallery
The Museum of London
Tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace
Tea at a fancy hotel - I like the Lanesborough
Shopping!! Westbourne Grove/Portobello Road, Covent Garden area, Marylebone High Street, Brompton Cross, King's Road, Sloane Street and environs in Knightsbridge, Oxford Street, Regent Street and Liberty of London, Kensington High Street, on and on and on.
Check out www.streetsensation.co.uk

Markets - Portobello Road, Borough Market, Columbia Road Flower Market, Spitalfields

Meandering through the "Albertroplois" area, through Kensington Gardens and through the Kensington neighbourhood to Notting Hill

I liked the Literary London and Apparitions, Alleyways and Ale walks from London Walks (www.walks.com)
They have lots of others you may be interested in. I LOVE London Walks.

Thanks for the London Walks tip. I'll definitely look into that. Also want to tour the Globe. Any recommendations for pubs with really good food?

Top 3

British Museum
Tower of London
London Eye - but it's closed at the moment for it's annual maintenance

One gorgeous pub with pretty good food is the Salisbury near Leicester Square:
http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub620.html

And the Fancy-a-Pint site is great for finding other pubs.

The Tower of London (a 2-4 hour site) (Do this first thing one morning, avoid some crowds, be done by lunch)

Westminster Abbey (a 2-3 hour site)

The British Museum (a 2-3 year site--LOL!--can spend an hour, can spend days--but it's free)

The Parks--Hyde is famous, central, and lovely, Regents in beautiful, St James and Green are walk-throughs as you see Westminster area

And of course all the photo op icons you just walk by like Big Ben, Buckingham, Parliament, Traflager, the lions there, etc.


(and then there's St. Paul's, shopping, the Globe, all the markets, all the museums, etc.!)

You don't say if you've ever been or what you like, or how much time your business part will take, but you should get some good ideas here.
Weather and your location may dictate in part what you can get to.

(A couple tiny pubs in Belgravia are the Wilton Arms and the Nags Head, both on Kinnerton and both really neighborhood-ish) (they are rather near Harrods/Knightsbridge)

Walking through any of the Parks is fabulous; walking over the Tower Bridge and along the South Bank is great, too.

My favorite thing to take visitors on is a bike tour:

http://fattirebiketours.com/london

I just checked and it appears they aren't offering tours again until 1 March however.

I've done it several times and I thoroughly enjoy it each time.

1) a West End show
2) Opera or ballet at the Royal Opera House
3) Tate Modern (Rothko show closes Feb 1
4) National Gallery
5) free concert at Westminster Abbey on Sunday afternoons

Top 3 to see

1. British Museum
2. V & A
3. The Eye

3 walks (January isn't the best month!)

1. Walk along the Thames (past Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, the Eye etc) criss cross the river.
2. Walk through St. James' Park
3. Covent Garden to watch street entertainers, shop and people watch and then walk to the National Gallery and around Trafalgar Square.

3 eats

1. Good fish and chips
2 Good curry (like the Marsala Zone)
3. Cafe at V&A

Enjoy!